The first major presentation in Australia of one of Japan’s most influential, prolific and everlastingly popular artists, Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849), the National Gallery of Victoria presents Hokusai from 21 July 2017.
An influential master of Japanese manga and a self-proclaimed ‘drawing maniac’, Hokusai produced a body of work comprising some of the most recognisable and reproduced images in the history of Asian art, most notably The great wave. Spanning the artist’s entire career, Hokusai will include more than 175 works by the artist, comprising woodblock prints, rare paintings on silk never-before-seen in Australia and hand-printed manga (illustrated books).
Produced in a landmark international collaboration between the NGV and the Japan Ukiyo-e Museum (JUM), which houses the world’s largest and oldest collection of traditional Japanese woodblock prints, the exhibition will include the complete sets of Hokusai’s five career-defining series – all produced by the artist during his seventies and rarely on display in their totality – including Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, 1830-34, which features his iconic work, The great wave off Kanagawa, c. 1830.
The exhibition will also feature all fifteen editions of The Hokusai Manga – the artist’s irreverent homage to Japanese humorous illustrations, which had an indelible impact on the development of contemporary manga in Japan and positioned Hokusai as a pioneer of the popular form.
“Katsushika Hokusai is considered one of Japan’s greatest and enduringly popular artists. His moving and dramatic compositions, including The great wave, show the coexistence between humanity and the awesome power of nature, a relationship that is as relevant today as it was in the nineteenth century,” said Tony Ellwood, Director NGV.
“The unprecedented Australian exhibition, Hokusai offers audiences a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness the artist’s influential legacy in one of the most comprehensive exhibitions ever staged outside of Japan.”
The great wave off Kanagawa was acquired for the NGV Collection in 1909. In Hokusai, this work, rarely displayed due to its fragility and light sensitivity, will be exhibited alongside a corresponding early impression of the same great wave from JUM’s collection, offering a fascinating scholarly assessment of the prints 180 years after they were created.
Lauded for his wondrously colourful images that celebrate everyday life and people’s relationship to nature, Hokusai often depicted the merchant class of Edo period Japan in recognisable situations and landscapes.
Hokusai’s work had a transformative impact on Japanese art; he was at the forefront of new technologies, using the latest and most vibrant colours as they became available, such as Prussian blue, and his experimentation with design, composition and perspective introduced a three-dimensionality to the traditionally two-dimensional Japanese pictorial aesthetic.
Hokusai
NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
Exhibition: 21 July – 15 October 2017
Admission fees apply
For more information, visit: www.ngv.vic.gov.au for details.
Image: Katsushika Hokusai, Japanese 1760–1849, The great wave off Kanagawa c. 1830 (detail) from the Thirty-six views of Mt Fuji series, 1826–33. colour woodblock 25.7 x 37.7 cm (image and sheet). National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Felton Bequest, 1909 (426-2)